Wash Your Steps
Wash Your Steps is a 1995 short film directed by Alec Kibby and written by Elliot Strange, based on a book the latter wrote in 1984. The film was produced by Gecko Studios and Battle Flag Animation for the National Film Board of Canada. Plot The MacPhearsons are a low-middle class family from the city, consisting of a single mother Moreen, a son and four daughters. Each member keeps to themselves and have grown used to their own flaws. The mother loses her job and had broken down after a bad traffic jam caused her to be late. She moves her family into a duplex owned by her sister Tilly in Alberta. The duplex is inhabited by her, her husband Eustace and their family of four. After their first day at their new school, the MacPhearson kids do their homework, where one of Tilly's daughters complain of an odd odor. Their only son picks up on this and soon Tilly and Eustace drop everything to find it. After ruling out a full garbage can, dirty dishes and a potential dead animal, their search leads them to the second oldest child, Stella. When accused, she claims she took a shower, but admits to not washing her feet, not seeing the point and claiming that her family never said anything (due to their senses getting dulled over the years.) The odor causes one of their daughters to lose concentration and not complete her homework, keeps their son up and makes Eustace vomit due to his sensitive stomach. Her reluctance to wash leads to Tilly forcing her to sleep in a loft in the garage. Her scent scares away the various rodents present and she feels less of a need to clean herself. The worsening odor causes other students to avoid her and the custodians try to wash her before the principal sends her home. The scent causes her family to leave her at school as it has become unbearable for them. The rest of the town begins to share the same sentiment and chase after her with the intent of cleaning her. She runs off into the forest and everyone parts, feeling she will no longer be an issue. Her socks get torn in the run after they graze a patch of thorns. The foliage begins to die out and even the skunks refuse to be near her. Over the next few weeks, she begins to look more and more grotesque and finds she is unable to face anyone in town anymore. As she ventures deeper into the woods, she finds a cottage and is greeted by an old woman, one who's surprisingly tolerant of her scent. It's revealed her reluctance to wash her feet reflects on her lack of care for her financial and social standing, that she could never rub elbows with those better than her. She is led to a bath and after getting in, is restored to her former self. She awakens back in the loft and immediately goes to wash her feet. Trivia * The characters present in the short would later appear in Strange's television series The Halloween Kids. Most of the characters were altered. **Stella's name was changed to Stacy. **Trudy is established as a biological cousin, but in the show it's changed to her being adopted. **Eustace's name was changed to Duke. **Tilly's name was changed to Hen. **Moreen's name was changed to Muriel.